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TravellingTandem - Darrell and Cathy

Two South African graduates with itchy feet and very little money, we take to the East in search of beautiful views, wierd food and a backpack full of memories. This is the story of the highs, lows and the day-to-day journey.

We've just completed a year-and-a-half of teaching Inglish in South Korea. It's been an incredible time. We came from two different parts of South Africa, and after a beautiful ceremony during a holiday back in SA, we're now MARRIED and have even bought property together (our awesome tent-for-2!). We're now Kimchied-up and saved-up enough to hit the road again. We'll be taking the long road home to SA, including 4 months of backpacking around SE Asia.

Enjoy our adventures with us.

(Scroll Down for blogs, earlier ones are of our time exploring Korea)

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Joined on: October 24th 2006
Last Login: February 8th 2010

Blog Entries: 112
Photos: 1271
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Blogs & Travel Journals

by TravellingTandem, order by Date newest first.

By TravellingTandem
March 24th 2009

Kite Ploughing and Morris Dancing. Now we're settling in! {Darrell} Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Christchurch

The beautiful drive to Akaroa

It's almost impossible to think that we've already been here one month. That said, it has been a super busy month. Our house is also looking very different. We went all over town looking for some furniture, but ended up finding a lounge set at our favourite shop where we bought our bed. The couches looked a bit dirty, but when the saleswoman showed us that the single couches lean right back and have footrests (proper lazyboys) she sealed the deal. Back at home we gave them a good scrub with some clothes soap, and ow they're actually looking really good. [View Full Entry]

By TravellingTandem
March 17th 2009

Setting up home... again. {Darrell} Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Christchurch

Not bad

New Zealand is not close to South Africa. It’s not even far from South Africa. It’s quite literally the opposite side of the world. In order for us to get from Cape Town to Christchurch , we had to change planes in 3 cities, cross 10 time zones, and go through an incredible amount of toothpaste-confiscating checkpoints. By the time we’d arrived in the Land-Under-the-Downunder, we had no idea what time it was (the 7hr layover in Perth saw to that) and we’d completely skipped Wednesday. Travelling to another country is a big deal, especially when you’re moving in and not [View Full Entry]

By TravellingTandem
December 18th 2008

What's Angkor Wat? {Cath} Asia » Cambodia » North » Angkor

Sunrise over Angkor Wat

Until Darrell mentioned to me that Angkor Wat was one of his long time dream places to see, I'd never heard of it. He told me that it was an amazing collection of ancient temples, that it was one of the UNESCO World Heritage sites, and that it was the setting for the Tomb Raider movies. That was enough for me. As we were planning the trip, I was eager to learn as much about the temples as I could, but at the same time, very careful to avoid seeing any pictures. I was worried that with so much hype, that [View Full Entry]

By TravellingTandem
December 16th 2008

Si Phan Don (Darrell} Asia » Laos » South » Si Phan Don

Waterfall off Don Det

Although translated as "4000 Islands", only a few of islands that split this part of the mighty Mekong are actually inhabited. We had originally decided on the quieter of the populated islands, Don Det, as our chosen destination, but had to change our plans when we found that it would require chartering a boat ourselves. Instead we headed for neighbouring Don Khon. The longboat that carried us out was well loaded with people and packs and sat deep in the water. We slalomed between islets until coming upon a tiny stretch of sand surrounded by a few open restaurants and cafes. [View Full Entry]

By TravellingTandem
December 13th 2008

Lazy Luang Prabang {Cath} Asia » Laos » West » Luang Prabang

Sun rising over the mountains

Even if Luang Probang was a dingy run down village with nothing to attract you to see it, I would still go just for the drive. We left the giant limestone cliffs of Vang Vieng silhouetted in the distance as we drove off on the dusty road up the mountains towards LP. It was a breath-taking drive from the moment we left Vang Vieng. As we climbed higher and higher into the mountains, the vegetation grew thicker, intermingled with countless banana farms. Every now and then when the thick vegetation gave way to the plantations, awesome green valleys far below us [View Full Entry]

By TravellingTandem
December 12th 2008

Splashing about Vang Vieng {Darrell} Asia » Laos » West » Vang Vieng

View over the river

Right from the moment we entered Laos, we both noticed how it seemed in some way more similar to Africa and slightly less foreign than the rest of Asia. It may have been that we were really looking forward to the prospect of an upcoming 2 weeks of travelling in Southern Africa, but there were similarities. Most noticeable was that while we had hadly ever been cold in our trip, this was the first country where the air was hot and dry. We travelled under endless blue skies over dusty roads past grass thatched huts. As we rushed along the unsealed [View Full Entry]

By TravellingTandem
December 8th 2008

Cooling off in Ko Lanta {Cath} Asia » Thailand

Palms

It was madness getting off the boat from Railay. Schools of touts flustered about all the tourists, encouraging all to come to their bungalows. At one point, we had about 7 expectant faces all talking over each other at us. It was pretty crazy, not to mention overwhelming! We selected one who said that he's take us to his and if we didn't like it, he'd take us where we wanted to go. As it turned out, he only had one bungalow left, right at the end of a row leading away from the beach, so we decided to look for [View Full Entry]

By TravellingTandem
December 6th 2008

Dangling High Above the Sea in Railay {Darrell} Asia » Thailand » South-West Thailand » Railay

The beach at Railay

It's amazing how quickly the political situation in a country can change. With a whole army of rioters keeping the Bangkok airport closed and the prime minister trying to fight against the calls for his resignation we had been keeping an eye on the situation in Thailand over the past couple of days. Our plan was to travel up the Andaman coast to Bangkok, but with stories of grenades going off in the airport being passed around the backpackers' cafes we were waiting to see how serious the situation was becoming. After checking the web and chatting to a few other [View Full Entry]

By TravellingTandem
December 4th 2008

Jungle Train & Penang {Cath} Asia » Malaysia » Penang » George Town

Train Station

Jungle Train up to Wakaf Bharu Was unbelievable! The only bad thing about it was that we had to wake up at the crack of dawn to be at the station at 5am to catch it. But, we did, and to lessen the snoozy blow, it was still dark all the way to the border, so we could go back to sleep for a while I think the border people were having as rough a morning as we were, because when we got into the immigration building the chairs were still on the tables, and there was one lady stamping passports... [View Full Entry]

By TravellingTandem
December 1st 2008

A Whole New World {Darrell} Asia » Singapore

Chinatown square

One quick bounce through Kuala Lumpur, and we were back on a plane down to Singapore... well, actually just to the boarder town in Malaysia, Johor Bahru, from where we caught a bus across the boarder into Singarore. After nearly 3 months of travelling by old motorbikes, horse-carts, ex-army jeeps, minivans, 3-wheel motorised 'cars' and ancient rusting busses on some of the worst roads in Philippines, Borneo & Sumatra, we finally found ourselves cruising down the smooth, straight highway towards downtown Singapore. Briefly. Ten minutes into the country our bus chugged a bit and then rolled to a stop on the [View Full Entry]

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TravellingTandem - Darrell and Cathy

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